In the Mouth of Madness: Difference between revisions

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* [[Dream Within a Dream]]: See [[Catapult Nightmare]].

* [[Driven to Madness]] {{spoiler|Very likely Trent at the end.}}

* [[Driven to Suicide]]: One of the town's residents kills himself with a shotgun after his daughter attacked him and his wife. He makes it clear that he doesn't have a choice in the matter, as he possesses in-universe [[Medium Awareness]].

* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: The Old Ones. When they enter reality through Sutter Cane's book, they herald the end of humankind.

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* [[Genre Savvy]]: Having read Cane's books, the characters know what to expect. Whether they choose to believe that the books correspond to reality is another matter.

* [[A God Am I]]: [[Zig Zagged]] with Sutter Cane. In this case, he may very well be, as his writings have granted him the ability to recast the entirety of reality through his novels. On the other hand, it's made clear that he is actually in service to a host of Lovecraftion terrors that are slowly invading the world.

* [[Go Mad ~~From~~ the Revelation]]: {{spoiler|During the ending, after witnessing the collapse of human civilization in a rising tide of madness and mutation, John Trent cracks when he discovers that the nightmarish book that did the deed was just a novelisation of everything he did in the last few days. He finds this out by watching the film adaptation. More to the point, it's rather implied that Trent's burst of laughing madness is due to his realization that he is in fact a fictional character, perhaps even of not only Sutter Cane, but also the screenwriter of this movie.}}

* [[Go Mad from the Revelation]]: {{spoiler|During the ending, after witnessing the collapse of human civilization in a rising tide of madness and mutation, John Trent cracks when he discovers that the nightmarish book that did the deed was just a novelisation of everything he did in the last few days. He finds this out by watching the film adaptation. More to the point, it's rather implied that Trent's burst of laughing madness is due to his realization that he is in fact a fictional character, perhaps even of not only Sutter Cane, but also the screenwriter of this movie.}}

** Not that he was implied to be holding it together particularly well even before that. {{spoiler|The fact that he stops to get himself a bucket of popcorn before wandering into the theater playing the movie he believes ended the world is both mildly humorous and deeply disturbing if you start thinking about it.}}

* [[Going in Circles]]: Trent tries to drive out of town repeatedly but ends up right where he he started.

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* [[I Am a Humanitarian]]: In Trent's nightmare, one of the monster people eats part of a person they just axed to death.

* [[I Don't Like the Sound of That Place]]: Hobb is an old English word for Devil.

* [[Jump Scare]]: Used extensively.

* [[Kick the Dog]]: Quite literally. Our introduction to the [[Creepy Child|terrifying children]] of Hobb's End shows them running after a dog. The next time we see them, the dog has had one of its legs ripped off and is limping around forlornly.

* [[Kill It with Fire]]: Doesn't work. {{spoiler|Since at that point, burning the book is like trying to burn the entire world.}}

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* [[Monochromatic Eyes]]: Cane's eyes during the mock-confessional.

* [[Name of Cain]]: Sutter ''Cane''.

* [[Nightmare Dreams]]: Trent has an extensive one that takes place in an alleyway at night.

* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: Sutter Caine is a mixture of [[Stephen King]] and [[H.P. Lovecraft]].

* [[No Fourth Wall]]: An ''in universe'' example that breaks through two fourth walls. {{spoiler|At the end, Trent views the film you are watching, only disjointed and cut up.}}

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* [[Reality Warper]]: Sutter Cane.

* [[Recurring Dreams]]: Trent begins to suffer from these. {{spoiler|Turned out Cane was just writing a little [[Foreshadowing]] into proceedings.}}

* [[Red Right Hand]]: Readers of the books of hack horror writer Sutter Cane go insane and develop strange physical afflictions, like a second pupil in their iris, or bleeding from their eyes. And berserk homicidal tendencies, of course. Over the time, these minor affliction develop into serious bodily mutations- including tentacles, distended jaws, and reversible joints.

* [[Ret-Gone]]: The eventual fate of {{spoiler|Linda Styles}}.

* [[Rewriting Reality]]: Hobb's End and {{spoiler|John Trent}} were written into existence by an author called Sutter Cane, who also produces a number of retcons that remove a character from existence and reshuffle an entire sequence of events within the film. By the end of the film, the entire world has apparently been absorbed by Cane's latest novel. It should be noted that once he finishes his novel close to the end of the film, Cane appears to be able to warp reality at will, as demonstrated with the conversations he has with John Trent.

* [[Room Full of Crazy]]: Notably, Trent starts out the movie having made his own filled with [[Creepy Cool Crosses|drawn crosses]] with just a single black crayon. It's even [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] by Dr. Wren who thinks that Trent isn't as mad as people think.

{{quote|"The crosses are a nice touch. They'd almost have to keep you in here after seeing these, wouldn't they?"}}

* [[Rule of Scary]]: A rare in-universe example; Hobb's End runs on this {{spoiler|because it's the product of Sutter Cane's imagination.}}

* [[Shout-Out]]:

** Lots to [[H.P. Lovecraft]], including several names, like Mrs. Pickman. And the title is reminiscent of both Lovecraft's novella ''At the Mountains of Madness'', and the town of Innsmouth, mentioned in several of his stories.

** Sutter Crane is basically an [[Expy]] for [[Stephen King]].

** Hobb's End is also a reference to the ''[[Quatermass]]'' films.

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* [[Treasure Map]]: Trent "discovers" the secret location of (the supposedly fictional) Hobb's End by piecing together a jigsaw map made from secret shapes hidden in the cover art of Cane's novels.

* [[Unreliable Narrator]]: What's real and what's all in Trent's head? Is the entire world the product of an Unreliable Narrator?

* [[Window Pain]]:

** Used when {{spoiler|Caine}} visits Trent while he's locked up in the mental asylum.

** Caine's agent bursts into the restaurant Trent is having dinner with an employer by breaking the plate glass window with an axe.

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[[Category:Horror Films]]

[[Category:Films of the 1990s]]

[[Category:In the Mouth of Madness]]

[[Category:Film]]

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